Kenneth Macpherson
(Editor: July 1927-December 1933)
Macpherson was born in Scotland in 1903. Interested early in art, photography, and writing, he eventually developed a deep attachment filmmaking. In 1927, he established Close Up in collaboration with Bryher and H.D. He also began to produce films that experimented with new techniques. Of Macpherson’s three short films—Wing Beat (1927), Foothills (1928), and Monkey’s Moon (1929)—only fragments of Wing Beat survive. His only feature-length film Borderline (1930) took on the difficult subjects of race and gender relations. Produced in the very experimental and thick style which Macpherson advocated, the film was not received well by critics. After this negative response, Macpherson withdrew to his initial interests in art and writing. Over the course of the rest of his life, Macpherson moved to New York and then to Italy where he died in 1971.

Bryher
(Assistant Editor: July 1927-December 1933).
Bryher was born in 1894 and christened Annie Winifred Ellerman. Second in wealth only to the royal family, the Ellerman family provided well for Winifred who changed her name in 1920 for Bryher, her favorite Silesian Isle. Bryher’s family stipulated that for her to inherit her share of the family fortune, she must be married. So she was briefly married Robert McAlmon and then to Kenneth Macpherson (1927-47). Both of these marriages were a matter of convenience so that Bryher could collect her family fortune even though she was homosexual. With her family money, Bryher supported Close Up financially and she contributed to the magazine substantially as an editor and writer.

H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)
(Never listed as editor but acted as assistant editor July 1927-December 1933).
H.D. was born in America in 1886. Most well-known for her imagist poetry, H.D. was also very interested in film. As an intimate friend of both Bryher and Macpherson, H.D. worked substantially with the magazine acting as an assistant editor and a main contributor.

Oswell Blakeston
(Assistant editor from January 1931-December 1933).
Blakeston was a regular contributor to Close Up and when Macpherson started to lose interest in the magazine, he began to work as second assistant editor.

Compiled by Sabrina Rissing (Class of '06, Davidson College).